A rider guides his horse over burning pyres in the Spanish village of San Bartolome de Pinares to usher in the feast of St. Anthony the Great.

Anthony—who, among other things, is recognized as a patron saint of animals and monks—lived in ancient Egypt. He is known as "the father of monasticism" for helping to create early Catholicism's culture of self-discipline as a road to spiritual purity.

Many towns celebrate his feast day in January with the pyre ritual, which is said to cleanse a place of disease.